Israel’s Netanyahu Seeks New Allies in Historic Africa Trip

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at his Jerusalem office on 23 February 2016. PHOTO: Times of Israel/Haim Zach/GPO

By Tia Goldenberg | 3 July 2016

ASSOCIATED PRESS (Jerusalem) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Africa this week, where Israel has found much-needed partners in the battle against Islamic militants and allies in countering the rising Palestinian influence at the United Nations.

Netanyahu will also visit the site where his brother was killed in a 1976 military raid on a hijacked airliner in Uganda, a seminal event that helped cement his hard-line ideology.

Israel is hoping that the visit — the first by an Israeli premier to sub-Saharan Africa in three decades — will usher in a new era in which it provides African states with security and agricultural assistance in return for support in international forums.

Israel has a long history of involvement in Africa, sending experts in agriculture and development, as well as military advisers and mercenaries, over the years. …